Hey folks, just a quick post to let you all know that Adobe Lightroom 4 is now available in final form (non-beta). B & H Photo has the full version priced at $149 and the upgrade at $79.  Pretty sweet pricing when compared to prior versions that cost twice as much.

Some of the new features in Lightroom 4 include:

• The highlight and shadow recovery tools have been significantly improved.  They work pretty well in Lightroom 3 but it looks like Adobe has made them even more powerful in Lightroom 4.
• Hallelujah! Soft proofing! I’ve been waiting for this for a long time and it’s finally here.  I’ll no longer have to export my images to Photoshop prior to making a print, which means my workflow just got that much faster.
• A new white balance brush that makes it possible to selectively change white balance within an image. Very cool.  This has so many applications.  For example, I often find that selecting the correct white balance for the landscape causes a brilliant blue sky to lose some of its luster.  With the adjustment brush this is now a very easy fix.
• Additional brush controls that allow you to remove noise and moire patterns locally. I’m particularly excited to have the ability to remove noise locally without affecting the rest of the image.  Noise likes to creep up in shadows and expansive areas of color, like the sky, and in traditional noise removal it was an all or none proposition.  Lightroom 4 fixes that problem.
• Easy photo book creation. This isn’t something I’ll use often but when I do want to create a book it’s nice to know that the entire process will be a little more streamlined.
• Adobe realizes that a lot of photographers are now shooting video and Lightroom 4 adds a few features to make it easier to work with and publish video.
• Those of us who like to share our work online can now do so easier with the ability to publish directly to Flickr, Facebook and more.  You can also email photos from within Lightroom 4, which will make it much easier for pro’s to make stock photo submissions.  This will streamline my workflow and save valuable time.

At $79 to upgrade or $149 for a new purchase, Lightroom 4 is well worth the investment to gain access to several powerful new features.  I’ve been a user of Lightroom since version 1 and it’s been really cool to watch the software mature with each new release.

Purchase the full version of Lightroom 4 at B & H Photo

Purchase the upgrade version of Lightroom 4 at B & H Photo